[questions/qa-html-language-declarations] Armenian language?

[makhyan]

[source] (https://www.w3.org/International/questions/qa-html-language-declarations) [en]

I was reviewing the lang parameters and noticed that W3.org is referencing IANA Language Subtag Registry which is incorrectly categorizing Armenia language. Its common practice to have hy used for Armenian and not hyx

%%
Type: language
Subtag: hya
Description: Hya
Added: 2009-07-29
%%
Type: language
Subtag: hyw
Description: Western Armenian
Added: 2018-03-08
Comments: see also hy
%%
Type: language
Subtag: hyx
Description: Armenian (family)
Added: 2009-07-29
Scope: collection
%%

[aphillips]

That's not quite a correct reading of the registry and BCP47. The registry has:

%%
Type: language
Subtag: hy
Description: Armenian
Added: 2005-10-16
Suppress-Script: Armn
Comments: see also hyw
%%

The subtag hyx is a collection code. Collection codes are not recommended for use in making language tags. See BCP47, Section 4.1, which says in part:

 4.  Use subtags or sequences of subtags for individual languages in
       preference to subtags for language collections.  A "language
       collection" is a group of languages that are descended from a
       common ancestor, are spoken in the same geographical area, or are
       otherwise related.  Certain language collections are assigned
       codes by [ISO639-5] (and some of these [ISO639-5] codes are also
       defined as collections in [ISO639-2]).  These codes are included
       as primary language subtags in the registry.  Subtags for a
       language collection in the registry have a 'Scope' field with a
       value of 'collection'.  A subtag for a language collection is 
       always preferred to less specific alternatives such as 'mul' and
       'und' (see below), and a subtag representing a language
       collection MAY be used when more specific language information is
       not available.  However, most users and implementations do not
       know there is a relationship between the collection and its
       individual languages.  In addition, the relationship between the
       individual languages in the collection is not well defined; in
       particular, the languages are usually not mutually intelligible.
       Since the subtags are different, a request for the collection
       will typically only produce items tagged with the collection's
       subtag, not items tagged with subtags for the individual
       languages contained in the collection.

If you have concerns about the reference in the record for hy to the hyw subtag, you should suggest changes to the IETF language subtag registry list at ietf-languages@ietf.org. Thanks!